Loving v. Virginia
Loving v. Virginia is a landmark Supreme Court case decided in 1967 that addressed the constitutionality of laws prohibiting interracial marriage. The case arose when Richard and Mildred Loving, an interracial couple, were convicted under Virginia's antimiscegenation statute. Their legal challenge highlighted the discriminatory nature of such laws, which were rooted in historical precedents that enforced racial segregation and inequality. Chief Justice Earl Warren delivered the unanimous opinion, declaring that the Virginia law violated the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. This ruling effectively invalidated all state laws prohibiting interracial marriage across the United States, impacting fifteen southern states that enforced such restrictions. Loving v. Virginia is often celebrated as a significant step toward civil rights and equality, symbolizing a broader societal shift toward acceptance of interracial relationships. The case remains a vital part of American legal history, illustrating the ongoing struggle against racial discrimination and the recognition of individual liberties.
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Loving v. Virginia
Date: June 12, 1967
Citation: 388 U.S. 1
Issues: Marriage; racial discrimination
Significance: The Supreme Court, in striking down a Virginia antimiscegenation law, voided statutes preventing interracial marriage throughout the United States.
In Pace v. Alabama (1883), the Supreme Court upheld a law that punished interracial fornication more severely than fornication between members of the same race on grounds that both partners were punished equally. This created the equal application or, in reality, equal discrimination exception to the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal protection clause. After Shelley v. Kraemer (1948) and Brown v. Board of Education (1954), this became an increasingly untenable distinction, but the Court was apparently unwilling to face such a sensitive issue. In the 1960’s, Loving, a white man who had married a black woman, was convicted under a Virginia antimiscegenation law and subsequently challenged the law’s constitutionality. Chief Justice Earl Warren, for a unanimous Court, declared the Virginia law unconstitutional both as a denial of the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal protection law and as a denial of liberty. The decision invalidated all laws forbidding interracial marriage, including those in fifteen southern states.
Bibliography
Johnson, Kevin R., ed. Mixed Race America and the Law: A Reader. New York UP, 2003. Print.
"Loving v. Virginia." Legal Information Institute. Cornell U Law School, n.d. Web. 6 Jan. 2016.
Maillard, Kevin Noble, and Rose Cuison Villazor. Loving vs. Virginia in a Post-Racial World: Rethinking Race, Sex, and Marriage. New York: Cambridge UP, 2012. Print.
Pascoe, Peggy. What Comes Naturally: Miscegenation Law and the Making of Race in America. New York: Oxford UP, 2010. Print.
Roberts, Dorothy E. "Loving v. Virginia as a Civil Rights Decision." New York Law School Law Review 59.1 (2014): 175–209. PDF file.
Sharfstein, Daniel J. The Invisible Line: A Secret History of Race in America. Rpt. New York: Penguin, 2012. Print.